John Choi

County Attorney

John Choi immigrated to St. Paul at the age of three with his parents from South Korea. John graduated from St. Thomas Academy High School, Marquette University and Hamline University School of Law, and was a Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Following law school, John was in private practice first at Hessian, McKasy, & Soderberg, and then at Kennedy & Graven, where he focused on government relations, administrative law, municipal law and civil litigation, rising to the level of partner within six years. John went on to become the Saint Paul City Attorney, leading a public law and prosecution office of 70 employees with an $8 million budget. Throughout his tenure, John was innovative in making reforms and finding efficiencies in the criminal justice system. John was pleased to have the opportunity to join the firm of McGrann, Shea, Carnival, Straughn & Lamb before becoming elected Ramsey County Attorney in the fall of 2010. As Ramsey County Attorney, John is working hard to continue to reform the criminal justice system and keep our community safe. In his spare time, John serves the community as a volunteer board member of several Saint Paul nonprofits, including Sounds of Hope and St. Paul Youth Services. He also serves on the board of the Ramsey County Bar Association and is member of the Saint Paul Rotary Club.

Daniel F. Conley

District Attorney

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley is the chief law enforcement officer for the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, Massachusetts. Appointed to the office in February 2002, Conley was elected in his own right on Nov. 5, 2002, again on Nov. 7, 2006, and most recently on Nov. 2, 2010. As district attorney, Conley oversees the largest and busiest district attorney’s office in Massachusetts. His office is currently responsible for the prosecution of between 40,000 to 50,000 criminal cases every year in the state’s most densely-populated county. Prior to taking office as Suffolk County’s 14th district attorney, Conley served for eight years on the Boston City Council, serving several terms as chairman of the Council’s Public Safety Committee. A career prosecutor before seeking public office, Conley served as an assistant district attorney for nine years in the office he now leads, prosecuting homicides and other serious felonies including drug trafficking, non-fatal shootings, and intimate partner violence. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was one of a handful of state prosecutors named to Massachusetts’ first anti-gang violence task force. Dan Conley’s top priorities as district attorney include the protection of society’s most vulnerable members, including seniors, children, and victims of domestic violence; reform and innovation to prevent and correct wrongful convictions; the aggressive prosecution of violent offenders, especially those who carry and use firearms on city streets; and adherence to the highest ethical standards by every member of his office.

George Gascón

District Attorney

George Gascón is the District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. He has earned a national reputation as a criminal justice visionary and as a leader who uses evidence based practices to make communities safer by lowering crime. He is the first Latino to hold the office in San Francisco and is the nation’s first police chief to become District Attorney. His approach to public safety and reform is based on the need to hold people accountable without breaking the wallets of California taxpayers. To begin addressing the high recidivism rate in California, District Attorney Gascón launched three groundbreaking initiatives – the Alternative Sentencing Program, the Neighborhood Courts and Neighborhood Prosecution Program and a county level Sentencing Commission. District Attorney Gascón has thirty years of experience in law enforcement promoting through the ranks to become Assistant Chief at the Los Angeles Police Department, Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona and Chief of Police in San Francisco. In addition to his criminal justice work at the local, state, and national level, District Attorney Gascón has worked on public safety initiatives in Latin America and the Middle East. He is a Board member of the Council of State Government’s Justice Center, is a graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute, and is a member of the Harvard University/Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety. District Attorney Gascón has a Bachelor of Arts in History from California State University, Long Beach, and a Juris Doctor Degree from Western State University, College of Law.

Vic Reynolds

District Attorney

Vic Reynolds is the District Attorney of Cobb County, Georgia. Cobb County is one of five counties that make up Metropolitan Atlanta. It has a population of over 720,000 people. In 1979, Vic earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Georgia Southern University, in Statesboro. After graduating, Vic returned to Rome, where he was in law enforcement for four years. In 1986, Vic graduated from law school at Georgia State University and began prosecuting felony cases as an assistant district attorney in Fulton and Cobb counties. He was a prosecutor in Cobb when he was appointed as Chief Magistrate in 1994. Vic won election to a full term as Chief Magistrate in 1996, earning 72 percent of the vote. As Chief Magistrate, his duties included presiding over the Cobb County Drug Court. He left the bench in 1999 and began practicing criminal-defense law. Vic was elected District Attorney in 2012 and assumed office on January 1, 2013. He manages a staff of 115 people, including 40 assistant district attorneys. Vic is a member of Marietta Kiwanis, Marietta Business Association, Cobb Chamber, State Bar of Georgia and Cobb County Bar Association. Vic is married to Holly and they have two grown daughters.

P. David Soares

District Attorney

On October 26, 1969, P. David Soares was born in Brava, Cape Verde, an island off the coast of West Africa. When David was six years old his family moved to the United States and settled in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. David worked his way through Cornell University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications. After Cornell, David attended Albany Law School and received his law degree in 1999. During Law School David interned and worked for the Albany County Airport Authority and also served as an intern at the District Attorney’s Office, where he eventually became an Assistant District Attorney. As an Assistant District Attorney in Albany County, David was Albany’s first community prosecutor. He established a Community Accountability Board, which successfully involved community members in turning youth away from crime and drugs. David was elected Albany County District Attorney on November 2, 2004 and re-elected to a second term on November 4, 2008. As a frequent Public Speaker, DA Soares continues to speak at events both locally and nationally. David has also received a number of awards and recognitions. David remains active in his community as a mentor in Bethlehem Youth Court, by teaching “Legal Lives” in the Albany Public Schools and as a board member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Albany. David is the proud father of two young children.

Thomas Zugibe

District Attorney

Thomas P. Zugibe, was elected Rockland County District Attorney in 2007. Since taking office in January, 2008, Tom has been instrumental in implementing many innovative initiatives in the Rockland District Attorney’s Office. Prior to his election, Zugibe worked for two decades in private practice and served as the West Haverstraw Village Justice for a period of eighteen years. Between 1981 and 1987, Tom served as a prosecutor in the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, where he was promoted to Executive Assistant District Attorney. His tenure in the District Attorney’s Office included directing the Narcotics Division and Major Offenses Division. District Attorney Zugibe began his legal career as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the New York State Deputy Attorney General for Medicaid Fraud Control under now-Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes. Tom is a 1975 graduate of Manhattan College and received his Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law in 1979. He is admitted to the New York Bar and the Federal District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Mitchell Roth

Prosecuting Attorney

Mr. Roth was elected as the Prosecuting Attorney for the County of Hawaii in November of 2012. Mitch has an BA from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a Jurist Doctorate from Whittier Law School. In 1993 he became a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney with City and County of Honolulu. As a Deputy Prosecutor in Honolulu, Mitch worked on all sorts of cases from traffic to felony offenses. In 1994, he helped develop a community oriented prosecution program for the City and County of Honolulu and became the first community oriented prosecutor in the State of Hawaii. He is a recipient of the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s Award of Excellence. In 1998, he left Honolulu to become a Deputy Prosecutor and Community Oriented Prosecutor in Hawaii County. In the Hawaii County Prosecutor’s Office, Mitch has worked on a variety of cases in District, Family and the Circuit Courts. For several years, he supervised the Asset Forfeiture Program, the Community Oriented Prosecution project, and was designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. Mitch is Happily married and the father of three children.